Sir Michael Fallon has resigned as Defence Secretary in the wake of allegations about sexually inappropriate behaviour after admitting that his past conduct may have "fallen below" the high standards expected of him .

Sir Michael Fallon has resigned as Defence Secretary in the wake of allegations about sexually inappropriate behaviour after admitting that his past conduct may have "fallen below" the high standards expected of him .

about time, good riddance to bad rubbish, not for putting his hand on some journalists knee

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Apparently,many in the defence circle regretted this decision.

Anyway,Gavin Williamson has been named as new defence secretary. No apparent defence experience or expertise. His appointment comes at a difficult time where he will have to literally save the defence from more cuts.

Anyway,Gavin Williamson has been named as new defence secretary. No apparent defence experience or expertise. His appointment comes at a difficult time where he will have to literally save the defence from more cuts.

The former defence secretary was deployed as a political bruiser at home to fight Labour and abroad to defend Britain’s corner on the world stage. A loyalist, he was a heavyweight in a Cabinet riven by Brexit feuding.

He ruthlessly attacked Labour leaders, warning voters in 2015 not to back Ed Miliband because he had “stabbed his own brother in the back” and claiming that Russian president Vladimir Putin would welcome a Jeremy Corbyn government. He led Britain’s campaign to crush Islamic State and hit back against Russian military actions.

After entering the Commons in 1983, he held a string of government positions. In recent years, the Sevenoaks MP, 65, was often sent out on the morning airwaves to try to smooth away the latest crisis, including during Mrs May’s disastrous snap election in June.

His fall from grace began with a report this week that he had touched the knee of journalist Julia Hartley-Brewer in 2002. She brushed it off as “mildly amusing” and he apologised at the time, but Sir Michael could not guarantee No 10 that there would not be other allegations and was forced out.

Nicholas Cecil

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MoD crisis deepens
The deep crisis in UK defence has just got a lot deeper with Sir Michael Fallon’s departure.

The politician, who had been in charge at the Ministry of Defence for more than three years, was due to deliver a major defence review in six weeks’ time.

Now the new person at the helm has to deliver a package of cuts and reforms with the fortunes of defence and the armed forces at their lowest ebb since the end of the Cold War.

Money is short, ships are being laid up, exercises cut back or cancelled, morale is wobbly in key areas, overall personnel numbers are down and so is recruiting.

Senior officials have been resigning. Last month Tony Douglas, in charge of defence equipment and support, walked out. After two years, he felt he had achieved little in the tangled world of defence procurement, according to friends and colleagues. Put bluntly, the sums in defence for all the plans, programmes and policies in train for the next 10 years just don’t add up.

The MoD says “contingencies” have been put in place against currency fluctuation but nothing sufficient is in place to meet the soaring cost of at least half a dozen items of equipment from the US, from Apache and Chinook helicopters and F35 aircraft for the two new aircraft carriers.

Something has got to give. The problem is that too many big-ticket items have been ordered which the nation can barely afford.

This will be the 13th defence review since 1945. The services have been offering up the cuts and “adjustments” they think they can get away with — a process known in the past as salami-slicing.

However, it now looks as though the defence crisis has gone way beyond salami-slicing and that the whole apparatus needs a comprehensive overhaul and new strategy. It is likely that Sir Michael knew this.